lunar deity A lunar deity or moon deity is a deity who represents the Moon, or an aspect of it. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related. Lunar deities and Moon worship can be foun ...

is a

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

who represents the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

, or an aspect of it. Lunar deities and Moon worship can be found throughout most of

recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...

in various forms. The following is a list of lunar deities:

African

American

Aztec mythology Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were a culture living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. According to legend ...

* Deity Metztli * Goddess Coyolxauhqui * God Tecciztecatl

Cahuilla mythology

* Goddess Menily

Haitian Vodou Haitian Vodou () is an African diasporic religions, African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West Africa, West and ...

* God Kalfu

Hopi mythology

* God Muuya

Incan mythology Inca mythology of the Inca Empire was based on pre-Inca beliefs that can be found in the Huarochirí Manuscript, and in pre-Inca cultures including Chavín culture, Chavín, Paracas culture, Paracas, Moche culture, Moche, and the Nazca culture. T ...

* Goddess Mama Killa * Goddess Ka-Ata-Killa * God Coniraya

Inuit mythology

* God

Alignak In the Inuit religion, Alignak is a lunar deity A lunar deity or moon deity is a deity who represents the Moon, or an aspect of it. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often ...

* God

Igaluk The Sun and Moon is an , a story in Inuit folklore. The traditional explanation for the movement of the Sun and Moon through the sky is that a brother and sister are constantly chasing each other across the sky. The story also explains the moon's ...

* God Tarqiup Inua

Lakota mythology

* Goddess Hanwi

Maya mythology Maya mythology or Mayan mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The legends of the era have to be ...

* Goddess Awilix; Xbalanque was their mortal (male) incarnation *

Maya moon goddess The traditional Mayas generally assume the Moon to be female, and the Moon's perceived phases are accordingly conceived as the stages of a woman's life. The Maya moon goddess wields great influence in many areas. Being in the image of a woman, sh ...

Muisca mythology

* Goddess Huitaca * Goddess Chía

Nivaclé Mythology

* Jive'cla

Pawnee mythology

* God Pah

Tupi Guarani mythology

* God Abaangui * Goddess Arasy * God/Goddess Jaci (gender depends on tribe)

Moon gods of East Asia

Ainu mythology The Ainu are an Indigenous peoples, indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Ku ...

* God Kunnechup Kamui

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural tradit ...

* Jie Lin, God that carries the Moon across the night sky * Chang Xi Mother of twelve moons corresponding to the twelve months of the year *

Chang'e Chang'e ( ; ), originally known as Heng'e (), is the goddess of the Moon and wife of Hou Yi, the great archer. Renowned for her beauty, Chang'e is also known for her ascending to the Moon with her pet Yu Tu, the Moon Rabbit and living in the Mo ...

Immortal that lives on the Moon * Tai yin xing jun () or Queen Jiang ( Jiuhou Nü) of

Investiture of the Gods ''The Investiture of the Gods'', also known by its Chinese titles () and is a 16th-century Chinese novel and one of the major Written vernacular Chinese, vernacular Chinese works in the gods and demons (''shenmo'') genre written during the Min ...

taoism Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...

and

Chinese folk religion Chinese folk religion comprises a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. This includes the veneration of ''Shen (Chinese folk religion), shen'' ('spirits') and Chinese ancestor worship, ances ...

Fan, Chen 2013. p. 23 * Tu'er Ye Rabbit god that lives on the Moon * Wu Gang Immortal that lives on the Moon

Indonesian mythology

* Goddess Ratih * Goddess Silewe Nazarate

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of years of contac ...

* God

Tsukuyomi , or simply or , is the moon kami in Japanese mythology and the Shinto religion. The name "Tsukuyomi" is a compound of the Old Japanese words and . The ''Nihon Shoki'' mentions this name spelled as , but this ''yumi'' is likely a variation ...

Korean mythology Korean mythology () is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of List of monarchs of Korea, various historical k ...

* Goddess Myeongwol

Vietnamese mythology Vietnamese mythology () comprises folklore, national myths, legends, or fairy tales from the Vietnamese people with aspects of folk religion in Vietnam. Vietnamese folklore and oral traditions may have also been influenced by historical conta ...

* Goddess Thần Mặt Trăng, the embodiment of the moon, the daughter of

Ông Trời Ông Trời (), commonly referred to as Trời ("sky, heaven"), is one of the most important gods in Vietnamese folk religion, traditional Vietnamese folk religion. Later, due to the influence of Taoism, he was merged and identified with the Jade ...

* Goddess Hằng Nga, goddess who lives on the moon

Moon gods in Philippine mythology

Philippine mythologies

*Kabigat (Bontok mythology): the goddess of the moon who cut off the head of Chal-chal's son; her action is the origin of headhunting *Bulan (Ifugao mythology): the moon deity of the night in charge of nighttime *Moon Deity (Ibaloi mythology): the deity who teased Kabunian for not yet having a spouse *Delan (Bugkalot mythology): deity of the moon, worshiped with the sun and stars; congenial with Elag; during quarrels, Elag sometimes covers Delan's face, causing the different phases of the moon; giver of light and growth *Bulan (Ilocano mythology): the moon god of peace who comforted the grieving Abra *Bulan (Pangasinense mythology): the merry and mischievous moon god, whose dim palace was the source of the perpetual light which became the stars; guides the ways of thieves *Wife of Mangetchay (Kapampangan mythology): wife of Mangetchay who gave birth to their daughter whose beauty sparked the great war; lives in the Moon *Mayari (Kapampangan mythology): the moon goddess who battled her brother, Apolaqui *Apûng Malyari (Kapampangan mythology): moon god who lives in Mount Pinatubo and ruler of the eight rivers *

Mayari Mayari is one of the many moon deities in Philippine mythology.The Philippines has multiple moon deities because of its diverse ethnolinguistic groups and rich pre-colonial unified belief systems. In Kapampangan people, Kapampangan mythology, M ...

(Tagalog mythology): goddess of the moon;Calderon, S. G. (1947). Mga alamat ng Pilipinas. Manila : M. Colcol & Co. sometimes identified as having one eye;Jocano, F. L. (1969). Philippine Mythology. Quezon City: Capitol Publishing House Inc. ruler of the world during nighttime and daughter of BathalaRamos, M. (1990). Philippine Myths, Legends, and Folktales. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform *Dalagang nasa Buwan (Tagalog mythology): the maiden of the moon *Dalagang Binubukot (Tagalog mythology): the cloistered maiden in the moon *Unnamed Moon God (Tagalog mythology): the night watchman who tattled on Rajo's theft, leading to an eclipse *Bulan-hari (Tagalog mythology): one of the deities sent by Bathala to aid the people of Pinak; can command rain to fall; married to Bitu-in *Bulan (Bicolano mythology): son of Dagat and Paros; joined Daga's rebellion; his body became the Moon; in another myth, he was alive and from his cut arm, the earth was established, and from his tears, the rivers and seas were established *Haliya (Bicolano mythology): the goddess of the moon, often depicted with a golden mask on her face *Libulan (Bisaya mythology): the copper-bodied son of Lidagat and Lihangin; killed by Kaptan's rage during the great revolt; his body became the moon *Bulan (Bisaya mythology): the moon deity who gives light to sinners and guides them in the night *Launsina (Capiznon mythology): the goddess of the Sun, Moon, stars, and seas, and the most beloved because people seek forgiveness from her *Diwata na Magbabaya (Bukidnon mythology): simply referred as Magbabaya; the good supreme deity and supreme planner who looks like a man; created the Earth and the first eight elements, namely bronze, gold, coins, rock, clouds, rain, iron, and water; using the elements, he also created the sea, sky, Moon, and stars; also known as the pure god who wills all things; one of three deities living in the realm called Banting *Bulon La Mogoaw (T'boli mythology): one of the two supreme deities; married to Kadaw La Sambad; lives in the seventh layer of the universe *Moon Deity (Maranao mythology): divine being depicted in an anthropomorphic form as a beautiful young woman; angels serve as her charioteers

Moon gods of Europe

Oceanic

Malagasy mythology Malagasy mythology is rooted in oral history and has been transmitted by storytelling (''angano'', "story"), notably the Andriambahoaka epic, including the Ibonia cycle. At least 6% of Madagascar are adherents of the religion, which is known as F ...

* Goddess Andriamahilala

Polynesian mythology Polynesian mythology encompasses the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia (a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian Triangle) together with those of the scattered cultures known as the Polyne ...

* God Avatea * God Fati * Goddess

Hina Hina may refer to: People and deities * Hina (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Hina (goddess), the name assigned to a number of Polynesian deities. * Hina (singer), of 2021 group Lightsum Other u ...

* Goddess Mahina * God Marama

Australian Aboriginal mythology

* God Bahloo

Mandjindja mythology

* God Kidili

Yolngu mythology

* God Ngalindi

Western Asian

Anatolian

* God

Arma Arma, ARMA or variants, may refer to: Places * Arma, Kansas, United States * Arma, Nepal * Arma District, Peru * Arma District, Yemen * Arma Mountains, Afghanistan People * Arma people, an ethnic group of the middle Niger River valley * Arma lan ...

(

Luwian religion Luwian religion was the religious and mythological beliefs and practices of the Luwians, an Indo-European people of Asia Minor, which is detectable from the Bronze Age until the early Roman Empire. It was strongly affected by foreign influence in ...

) * God Kašku ( Hittite mythology) * God

Men A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the fa ...

(

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

n mythology)

Elamite

* God Napir

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

* God

Agni Agni ( ) is the Deva (Hinduism), Hindu god of fire. As the Guardians of the directions#Aṣṭa-Dikpāla ("Guardians of Eight Directions"), guardian deity of the southeast direction, he is typically found in southeast corners of Hindu temples. ...

, invoked as a moon deity in some hymns * God

Chandra Chandra (), also known as Soma (), is the Hindu god of the Moon, and is associated with the night, plants and vegetation. He is one of the Navagraha (nine planets of Hinduism) and Dikpala (guardians of the directions). Etymology and other ...

or Soma, The moon god * Goddess Anumati, The moon Goddess.https://www.cosmicpowers8.com/goddess-anumati/

Hurro-Urartian

* God Kušuḫ ( Hurrian mythology) * Goddess Selardi (Urartian mythology)

Semitic mythology

* God Aglibol (Palmarene mythology) * God Almaqah (Sabaean mythology) * God Baal-hamon ( Punic religion) * God Saggar (

Ebla Ebla (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', , modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a Tell (archaeology), tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was ...

ite religion) * God

Sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

( Mesopotamian mythology) * God Ta'lab (

Arabian mythology In pre-Islamic Arabia, the dominant religious practice was that of Arab polytheism, which was based on the veneration of various deities and spirits, such as the god Hubal and the goddesses al-Lāt, al-‘Uzzā, and Manāt. Worship was ...

) * God

Wadd Wadd () (Ancient South Arabian script: 𐩥𐩵) or Ved, if translated to English, was the national god of the Kingdom of Ma'in, inhabited by the Minaean peoples, in modern-day South Arabia. Wadd is mentioned once in the Quran as part of a l ...

(Minaean mythology) * God

Yarikh Yarikh (Ugaritic: , , "moon"), or Yaraḫum, was a moon god worshiped in the Ancient Near East. He is best attested in sources from the Amorite city of Ugarit in the north of modern Syria, where he was one of the principal deities. His primary cul ...

(

Amorite The Amorites () were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people from the Levant. Initially appearing in Sumerian records c. 2500 BC, they expanded and ruled most of the Levant, Mesopotamia and parts of Egypt from the 21st century BC ...

and Ugaritic mythology)

Turkic mythology Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrism, Tengrist and Shamanism in Central Asia, Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and wa ...

* God Ay Ata

References

Bibliography

* * * * * Harley, Timothy. ''Moon Lore''. London: S. Sonnenschein tc. 1885. pp. 77–139. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lunar Deities 02 Lists of deities

Deities A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

African

American

Aztec mythology Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were a culture living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. According to legend ...

Haitian Vodou Haitian Vodou () is an African diasporic religions, African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West Africa, West and ...

Incan mythology Inca mythology of the Inca Empire was based on pre-Inca beliefs that can be found in the Huarochirí Manuscript, and in pre-Inca cultures including Chavín culture, Chavín, Paracas culture, Paracas, Moche culture, Moche, and the Nazca culture. T ...

Maya mythology Maya mythology or Mayan mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The legends of the era have to be ...

Nivaclé Mythology

Moon gods of East Asia

Ainu mythology The Ainu are an Indigenous peoples, indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Ku ...

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural tradit ...

Japanese mythology Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of years of contac ...

Korean mythology Korean mythology () is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of List of monarchs of Korea, various historical k ...

Vietnamese mythology Vietnamese mythology () comprises folklore, national myths, legends, or fairy tales from the Vietnamese people with aspects of folk religion in Vietnam. Vietnamese folklore and oral traditions may have also been influenced by historical conta ...

Moon gods in Philippine mythology

Moon gods of Europe

Oceanic

Malagasy mythology Malagasy mythology is rooted in oral history and has been transmitted by storytelling (''angano'', "story"), notably the Andriambahoaka epic, including the Ibonia cycle. At least 6% of Madagascar are adherents of the religion, which is known as F ...

Polynesian mythology Polynesian mythology encompasses the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia (a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian Triangle) together with those of the scattered cultures known as the Polyne ...

Western Asian

Elamite

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

Turkic mythology Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrism, Tengrist and Shamanism in Central Asia, Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and wa ...

See also

References

Bibliography